This den is a large cave with unnaturally smooth walls. There are holes in the walls showing the outside, but something covers them. Something I can see through. Aside from many items I have no names for, there’s a large, comfortable nest lined with something soft.
I immediately know Jaime would like such a nest, but how do I get it for him? Where are these images from? The world outside the cave holes doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen in the forest or on the mountain. It feels like a completely different world.
Looking up at the big green object that’s visible in the sky most of the time, but doesn’t burn like the smaller red one, I try to recall the images that appeared in my head a few days ago when Jaime pointed upward and talked. Those images made no sense then, and they still don’t.
Massive flying creatures with no wings and cavesinsidethem. Flying caves.
As Jaime spoke, I remembered something else, something that evoked great fear even though I didn’t understand it.
A tiny cave filled with blinking lights, like the forest at night. It’s falling, faster and faster. I’m terrified. Red and black move behind the windows. Trees and rocks. The forest. But I’m falling too fast. My hands touch the lights, but nothing happens. The fog surges. Claw marks on the cave walls and the lights. “Calm down. Control it. Don’t succumb,” I hear my own voice, but the fog returns and there’s nothing.
At night, there are tiny lights in the sky besides the big green one. Are those the flying caves? Is that where Jaime is from? Where I’m from?
Straining my mind, I try to remember how I found the den, how I arrived in the forest, how I came to exist, but nothing emerges, the memories long lost to the fog. HowdidI come to exist? There are no creatures like me in the forest. I am the only one. As far as I know, I’ve always been the only one here. Why did I never wonder where I came from?
Every creature I’ve met comes from others like them. They hatch from an egg or emerge from their parent’s body. Where did I emerge from?
“Headache again?” Stirring in my arms, Jaime reaches up to massage my temples. “You should drink more water.”
Water. I recognize that word now. He wants more water, and I don’t have branches or the right stones to make fire for him. I’m failing him again.
“Hey.” Grabbing the side of my snout, he makes me look at him. He’s smiling, completely ignorant of what a terrible mate I am. “Everything’s going to be okay.” His sweet words fill me with warmth I don’t deserve but am unable to reject. Baring my teeth in the not-snarl he likes so much, I enter the labyrinth leading toward my den.
“Ooh!” Jaime exclaims. I thought he’d grown bored of watching rocks as we walked here, but these rocks seem interesting to him. What a curious creature.
Although I have to admit, these rocks are different from all the others we passed. They’re thin and tall, jutting out of the ground like giant tree trunks without branches. Narrow paths wind between them, some blocked by fallen rocks, others leading in endless circles. There are several safe paths leading to my den, and as far as I know, I’m the only one who knows them. Not that any predators live up here on the mountain. Did I know that when I decided to settle in my den? Or did I just look for the safest hiding spot, terrified something would crawl over and eat me if I stayed closer to the vegetation? I can’t remember.
“Wow, this is amazing.” Jaime sounds excited, at least. “Like a whole rock labyrinth. Wait! What’s that? Set me down!”
Curious about what caught his attention among the many rocks, I set Jaime down. These rocks are relatively soft, with very few sharp edges, crumbling into sand when rubbed, so Jaime has no trouble crawling wherever he pleases.
“Oh my god, look! It’s a fossil!”
Crouching next to him, I examine the rock face he’s pointing at. There’s something resembling a leaf etched into the stone. It’s not particularly exciting in my opinion, but Jaime loves it.
“Look at that. I guess evolution must be similar everywhere. Sediments on the bottom of a body of water turn into sandstone, trapping creatures and vegetation inside and turning them into fossils. Except the sand is pink here, probably because of some mineral present in the water when it formed. Wow, this is so interesting. Oh, look!” Digging through the sand, he uncovers a small rock with half an insect etched into it. The rock is broken in half, so the insect’s tail is missing, but its head, antennae, and many legs are still recognizable. His eyes shining with happiness, Jaime holds the rock to his chest. “I’m keeping this one. I’ve always wanted a fossil. I mean, I really wanted a dinosaur fossil, like every other boy obsessed with dinosaurs, but this will do.”
His excitement over an insect-shaped rock is so adorable that I grin at him. If he likes that, I know just the place to bring him. He’ll absolutely love it there.
First, though, we need to reach the den. We might not stay there permanently, but it’s a safe spot for us to rest and for me to figure out what to do next.
Not long after Jaime found his rock, the entrance to the den comes into view. I hesitate before approaching the last obstacle, a vertical climb three times my height. A venomfang wouldn’t be able to climb it, but there are no venomfangs on the mountain, so it will only serve as an obstacle for Jaime to move around. Just another reason we shouldn’t stay here.
With Jaime holding onto my neck as we ascend, I’m free to use two of my hands for climbing while still safely supporting Jaime. It’s a much shorter and safer climb than our desperate ascent up the mountain when we were fleeing the venomfang, and soon we reach the top. In my den, the place I planned to bring Jaimefrom the first moment I realized I wanted to keep him. Instead of pride, Jaime’s presence here fills me with worry. I’m certain he won’t like it here, and I can’t believe I was foolish enough to think I could stash him with the rest of my hoard and keep him here.
Oh. My hoard. An unfamiliar emotion makes me uneasy. Looking at the odd items I’ve gathered with fresh eyes, no longer unencumbered by the red fog, I realize it’s just a silly collection of rocks, shells, and oddly shaped roots and branches. I can’t remember what possessed me to pick them up at all, let alone gather them here. Will Jaime think I’m silly, like the clatterbeaks who bring rocks and twigs to their nests? Oh no. Is that why I collected these? Because I saw clatterbeaks do it? Or…
I’m back in that large cave with oddly smooth walls and a softly lined nest. This time, I’m looking at a cave wall. There are narrow indentations lining it, all filled with…rocks? Shells? Twigs? My hands pick them up, my fingers smoothing over them.
Oh, great. Even in my fog memories, I collect useless clutter.
“Whoa. Nice cave.” Jaime looks around with boundless curiosity when I set him down. So far, he doesn’t seem disappointed, but we’ve only just gotten here. “It’s a little colder here than outside, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A great spot for the night. Oh, it even has running water! That’s some prime real estate right here, Adam,” he chatters as he crawls toward a small stream that runs along the back side of the cave. I don’t know where the water comes from or where it goes, only that it’s cool and clean.
As Jaime drinks from the stream, my heart constricts. He must be terribly thirsty if he doesn’t even ask me to make him hot stone water in his shell.
“Hmm. Tastes good. Should probably be clean enough to drink. It’s not like there’s anything to make fire, anyway. Howdid you even know this cave was here? It wasn’t visible from the bottom and—” His words stop as his eyes fall on the pile in the cave's corner. My pitiful collection of useless objects. “Wait, Adam. Is this…your home?”
He’s looking at me so incredulously that I’m tempted to scoop him up and carry him away from here right this instant, but I know he wouldn’t appreciate it. Not until he explores the place fully, and that includes the hoard. I hold my breath as he starts picking through the objects, wishing the cave floor would crack open beneath me and swallow me whole.
